Israel

12 Oct 2021; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett yesterday revealed plans to bring 500,000 Jewish immigrants from the US, South America and France to Israel, local media reported.

Speaking at a Ynet conference marking immigration and absorption week, Bennett said: "It is doubtful whether there are more important issues for our future and the essence of both Israel and Israeli society than the subject of Jewish immigration."

JERUSALEM, Oct 10 (Reuters) - The coming weeks are decisive for the future of the nuclear deal with Iran, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday, adding that every day that passes without Tehran responding to U.S. overtures will result in Iran enriching more uranium.

Speaking during a visit to Israel, the outgoing chancellor said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping also had a responsibilty to help to push Iran back to the negotiating table, she said at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

JERUSALEM, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Israel's security will be central to every German government, outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday during her farewell travel to Israel.

Merkel, in Israel on her last visit as a chancellor before the end of her 16-year term, met Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Jerusalem.

"I want to use this opportunity to emphasize that the topic of Israel's security will always be of central importance and a central topic of every German government," she said in joint remarks.

8 Oct 2021; MEMO: Mohammed Al-Arida, one of six Palestinian prisoners who escaped from Israel's high-security Gilboa Prison on 6 September and was recaptured days later, yesterday ended his hunger strike after Israeli authorities agreed to his demands, Arab48 reports.

09 Oct 2021; MEMO: An Israeli court in Jerusalem has revoked a previous decision of the Magistrate's Court permitting "silent prayers" for Jews in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Quds News Network reported on Friday.

Reporting Israeli public broadcaster Kan: "The Israeli police filed an appeal against the decision of the Magistrate's Court that prevented the deportation of a settler who performed a silent prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque."

08 Oct 2021; MEMO: As many as 2,590 medical interns resigned in Israel yesterday in protest of the 26-hour shifts they are forced to work.

The doctors-in-training signed off on a letter that was delivered to the Tel Aviv District Health office by Dr. Ray Bitton, head of the Mirsham organisation of medical interns.

The resignation came a day after the interns rejected a government proposal to gradually reduce shifts to 18 hours by 2026, but only in ten hospitals in outlying areas.

08 Oct 2021; MEMO: Israel's apartheid regime became the subject of a dispute recently in the Hebrew edition of the Haaretz newspaper between leading Israeli human rights attorney Michael Sfard and South Africa's Chief Rabbi Zeev Warren Goldstein.

JERUSALEM, Oct 7 (NNN-PNN) – Israeli police said yesterday that, 26 Israelis were arrested, on suspicion of massive fraud, related to foreign exchange cryptocurrency transactions, in a joint operation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The suspects allegedly conned “tens of millions of shekels” (millions of U.S. dollars) from dozens of American citizens, under the guise of digital forex trading, the police said, in a statement.

All of the suspects were arrested in Tel Aviv, it said.

07 Oct 2021; MEMO: The Israeli-based NSO Group ended its contract with the United Arab Emirates to use its powerful Pegasus state spyware tool because Dubai's ruler was using it to hack the phones of his estranged wife and that of her lawyers, her lawyers told England's High Court yesterday, Reuters reports.

06 Oct 2021; MEMO: Weapons worth $15 million have been stolen from Israeli army bases, including rockets, rocket launchers, mines and machine guns, local media revealed yesterday.

A report published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz showed that hundreds of guns, nearly 50 rocket launchers and numerous other types of weaponry were stolen between 2013 and 2020.